charcoal

1. a black amorphous form of carbon made by heating wood or other organic matter in the absence of air: used as a fuel, in smelting metal ores, in explosives, and as an absorbent

2. a stick or pencil of this for drawing

3. a drawing done in charcoal

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

charcoal

[′chär‚kōl]

(materials)

Also known as char.

A porous solid product containing 85-98% carbon and produced by heating carbonaceous materials such as cellulose, wood, or peat at 500-600°C in the absence of air.

The residue obtained from the carbonization of a noncoking coal, such as subbituminous coal, lignite, or anthracite.

low-temperature coke

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Charcoal

a drawing material made from charred wood, mainly twigs or sticks of linden, willow, and other trees. Hard pressed charcoal, made from charcoal powder with an added gum, became popular in the 19th century. Charcoal is widely used for finished drawings and preliminary sketches. It is valued because its stroke has a velvety texture and because it combines lines and tonal effects.

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References in periodicals archive

Both charcoal burners and the increase in land being used influx of returnees and Internal Displaced People (IDPs) have reduced natural forest around Bor at a high rate according to the minister.

Jonglei state central nursery ready to sell seedlings-says local minister

In the later Middle Ages, the charcoal burners operated to the west of the Warwickshire town on the heathland which stretched into Staffordshire, but people had been coming through Suttton for thousands of years before that.

The mystery of Sutton's name?

It will feature over 100 exhibitors, from woodturners, basket makers, horse loggers and yurt dwellers to willow weavers, oak bark peelers, hurdle makers and charcoal burners.

Craft caps a showcase of forest skills; It's hats off to one woodworker, as Environment Editor Tony Henderson found

The discussion of domestic life cleverly begins by considering the conditions of homelessness, whether from destitution, such as beggars, or from livelihood, such as charcoal burners. It then surveys the widely various ways in which people formed households and legitimated marriages.

Europe at Home: Family and Material Culture, 1500-1800

Fukumoto said three charcoal burners were still smoking in the car when the bodies were found, and the windows had been sealed with tape.

INTERNATIONAL: Nine people die in Japanese mass suicides

McGowan was surprised to discover that 40 percent of TAGS' grill sales are comprised of charcoal burners. She believes her customers are making the choice to buy charcoal grills based on space constraints and the desire for a traditional cooking technique.

The great outdoors: high fashion & flavor fire up barbecue enthusiasts

My research on the impact of the planning system on local food and wood enterprises, such as organic small-holders, farmers' market vendors, artisan food processors, farm-gate retailers, coppice workers, and charcoal burners, has found frequent failure by planning authorities to harness and encourage these enterprises.

Hedging their bets: Lucy Nichol looks at DEFRA's draft aim and objectives document and finds it raises as many questions as it answers. (Viewpoint)

The woods nearby were waterlogged still, the old cart tracks impassible, Where the charcoal burners gathered the cordwood, and once Long ago the green glades rang with the noise of forges.

Revisiting fairwarp

This is a probing study of the demoiselles of the northern slopes of the Ariege mountains, male peasants described in official reports as "armed and disguised as women," who for three years from 1829 intimidated forest guards, charcoal burners, and the innkeepers who gave them lodging.

Forest Rights: The War of the Demoiselles in Nineteenth-Century France

Its farmer-hero, Dicaeopolis, is tired of the Peloponnesian War and therefore secures a private peace treaty with the Spartans for himself in spite of the violent opposition of a chorus of embittered and bellicose old charcoal burners of Acharnae.

Acharnians